Today’s Quote: You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want. – Zig Ziglar
Welcome to another episode of the podcast that teaches you how to be a ridiculously good virtual assistant.
Today we are going to talk about marketing – in particular, outbound marketing – and how to do it well to get clients.
Click the play button above to tune in, or choose your favourite podcast player below:
Connect with Tracey D’Aviero, VA Coach and Trainer
Episode Notes:
What is marketing?
The act of putting your VA business in front of people
Instead of thinking of it as advertising and publicity, think more of it as visibility and sales/getting clients
Focus on increasing your visibility so your clients can decide on their own to buy
Why do we need to do marketing?
Learning how to market is the best thing you can do to guarantee the longevity of your VA business
because it brings in revenue and that keeps you in business
the second thing to do is get good at conversations – which is just an extension of the marketing
The more you do right, or well, the less you actually have to do
If you have 10 sales conversations and you get one client, that means your conversion rate is 10%. We want to strive for better than that. So we don’t make 20 conversations to get 2 clients – instead we improve our conversion rate, or the sales conversations that go right (and we sign the client).
We look for 7 sales from 10 conversations by doing better at them.
Market your business in 20 minutes a day – but you first have to have the essentials in place first
What are the essentials?
- What is your offer? What do you want people to buy?
- How much will it cost them?
- Who is going to buy it?
- Where are they – where will they see you, or where can you see them?
- What will you say to them? before, during and after
ONLY when you know the answers to these questions, you can doing some marketing to connect with your clients.
Inbound Marketing
Content that helps people see you and connect with you or reach out to you (attracting them IN to you)
Outbound Marketing
Actions and content that help you reach out to others to connect with them (reaching OUT to them)
Today we are going to talk about outbound marketing.
Outbound: Networking, cold calling – just conversations with people. Let’s park the sales talk and just talk about conversations.
Conversations – talk to someone, ask them questions, see if they need your services, if not – move along, if yes, keep talking.
That’s why it’s essential that you know the services you are going to offer.
Your BEST services
Do what you know best
Don’t do things you don’t do well, or don’t like doing – that’s not a service I offer
You can charge more, you can confidently talk about it
You can enjoy your work – and be the client’s expert
They will work with you, trust you, and refer you
Ask questions wait for answers
Listen to them
What does the client need?
What do they want to get help with?
What is their budget?
When do they want to start?
Really easy to sell a client when you can do what they need.
Other Outbound ways to get clients:
Sponsorships at events – vendor table or sponsor (you often get to speak or get extra mentions in front of the whole event crowd)
Sponsorship in publications – could be helpful
Business groups BNI Chamber – weekly commitment/referrals but often a great way to get clients – you will be the only VA
Attending events – ask questions at the mic and never forget to introduce yourself, your company, and tell people who you help and with what
Email marketing – mailing out to your list
Guesting on a seminar – showcase your expertise
Teaching a lunch n learn – usually the whole group will need your services (if you speak at the right places)
Social media ads – can be pricey but are very targeted
Anything where the service provider initiates the conversation is outbound marketing
What will you do to market your VA business? whatever works for you – whatever is comfortable for you – whatever produces results for you.
That’s all I’ve got for you this week.
Need Some Help?
If you need some help nailing down your marketing essentials, or having conversations with clients, or doing outbound marketing better, reach out to me at tracey@yourvamentor.com. I’ve helped hundreds of VAs through their challenges and got them on their way to the next thing. I’d love to do the same for you. I do private coaching, and registration for my new mastermind group The Virtual Circle is open now. Maybe one of those is right for you!
That’s all I’ve got for you this week, thanks for tuning in to learn to become a ridiculously good Virtual Assistant.